After bidding farewell to his family and Trint, the man he’s come to care for, Rafe heads out to sea, free to be himself for the first time in his life—free to learn himself, away from the constraints and trials of his mother, away from the terrible person he believed himself to be while forced to live with her.

When Rafe returns home his family is waiting for him—but there’s no sign of Trint. With a little push from his ward, Rafe decides to be bold and go after what he wants, though he fears in the end that all his efforts might still not be good enough to overcome the past and the secrets that have controlled so much of his life.

Pages or Words: 67,000 words

Categories: Fantasy, Gay Fiction, Romance

Excerpt:

Rafe rose and stood beside his bed, the dagger clutched tight as he waited for some indication that they were searching his ship. Who they might be, he wasn't sure. They shouldn't have been too far into unclaimed water, and as far as he knew, no pirate or enemy to their kingdom would attack so close to claimed water, but he could be wrong. There was always a chance for some war to crop up, even in these peaceful times.

The fighting sounded to have stopped not long after he woke, but Rafe waited until there was a knock at his door, and Captain Manis poked his head into the room, before moving, following him onto the deck to take stock of the damage.

"This shouldn't have happened," one of the men whispered as he hefted a body and placed it into a pile near the bow of the boat.

Rafe didn't say anything as he cast a glance at Captain Manis. His mouth was pinched, eyes hard as he led Rafe to a group of men, no older than boys, and stopped, arms crossed as he scowled at the defiant figures. Rafe waited, but when Captain Manis didn't say anything, he stepped forward.

"Why have you attacked our ship?" His gaze skimmed the group before him, taking in the trembling forms. After a quick perusal, he settled on one of the men whose eyes darted from side to side. Rafe knelt before the man, clasping his jaw in a firm hand. "Why have you attacked our ship?"

The man glanced from side to side again, but none of his fellows would look at him or speak up. With a deep breath, the man spoke in a small, childlike voice. "It's our right."

Rafe lifted an eyebrow. He must not have heard correctly. "Excuse me?"

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Ann Anderson author of No Secrets Needed, New Beginnings #2.

Hi Ann, thank you for agreeing to this interview.

Tell us something no one else knows about your characters.

For Rafe it's that he sometimes wishes he could have grown up cruel like his mother wanted because maybe then she would love him.

As for Trint, he secretly wants to hide Rafe away from everyone else so it's just the two of them and this scares Trint.

Have you ever written something that made you cry?

Yup. Just thinking about it makes me want to tear up because it's something rather personal.

Have you ever co-written with someone before?

I've tried twice. The first time was with someone who was new to writing and kind of expected me to do the bulk of writing while they got to read over what I'd written and the second was with someone who'd been co-writing a story with someone else when their partner decided they didn't want to write anymore. We tried, but where I thought they wanted the story to go was no where they wanted the story to go.

What is the most difficult part of writing for you?

Titles and love scenes.

Name your four most important food groups.

Chocolate, fruit (strawberries and mangos!), dairy, meat

Meet the author:

Ann Anderson enjoys long walks through wooded areas, hunting zombies, and stealing treasure from space pirates. Only the first happens in real life. Besides allowing her imagination to run rampant, Ann loves editing and is glad she’s been able to make a small career of it while following through with her other passion of writing. Her cats can attest to both passions as they enjoy knocking the laptop from her lap and claiming the space as their own whenever Illinois weather drops to a reasonable degree.